Your only access to eternity is a single moment. Enjoy this surprising journey. Don’t settle for anything less.
– Tom Todoroff
The night before I sold my parent’s house, the place in which I grew up, I went from room to room to say goodbye. It felt odd at first, but I thanked each doorway for being a passageway to a bigger life. As I moved about the house, so many memories came flooding back: the place I first prayed to God, the backyard grass where I sat with my grandfather on late Sabbath afternoons, the corner of my big sister’s closet where I’d hide away to steal a peak at a picture of a shirtless guy inside one of her ‘Cosmo’ magazines.
Still, the sounds are what I miss the most. The gentle echo of the linen closet door as it shut and clicked into place. The creak of the rusty screen door opening onto the porch outside the kitchen, when my mother would put out the garbage at night. My father’s sock drawer sliding shut.
On a private midnight, look behind you
There are embers still glowing
Buried but breathing
They are the memories of childhood
Like rubble stuck in your shoes
The trappings of time are tapping at your ankles
They have stowed along for the ride
Like the pastel scene when the sun finally gives up the sky
Certain memories capture your attention
Leave behind a captivating color
And guide you into the darkest hours
They are the deep river currents
Directing your dreams
Whatever you have is what you give to the world
You can only offer what you yourself have lived
You can only recover when you respect your past
Look behind you
Your childhood memories are catching up
Gathering in
Finding home
Let them remind you who you used to be
Let them renew the promises you forgot to keep
What is your favorite childhood memory?